Play Testers Wanted Pt. 09

"Well?" I asked and she tossed me the sword for my hip.

"Impressive. Sleek. Sexy. Lethal. I approve." Shuri stated proudly.

"We approve." MJ purred. "You worked very hard. We have an idea. We think we need to break in your new persona more."

"Break in?" I asked and they all shook their heads.

"Too deep, the voice." Angela remarked making a sour face.

"Try another," MJ agreed.

One hour later and the final aspect of the character was fine tuned. In the end I decided upon a blending of Nicole Scherzinger the singer, Angelina Jolie, with just a hint of Selma Hayek. Nicole had the oomph for both speaking and singing I wanted, Angelina gave me an additional playfulness mixed with an equal measure of menace, and Selma gave me that hint of the exotic. I'd have to see if Kiai-Jutsu still functioned properly using this new voice. To thank everyone, I gave them the one thing they wanted most, me. I became their plaything again for a full eight hours.

Twelve hours later.

Asgardian stamina, heh, I won't underestimate that ever again. I lay sprawled on the bed surrounded my naked woman flesh. I closed my eyes and did the final tweaking before I left for the Negative Zone and reclaiming what was mine, the Darksaber. My hand ached to possess my namesake again.

"Surfer display dark elf tech tree." I directed and looked at the skill web. "How far have I advanced?" The very bottom of the web shimmered. "I see. What is that next level, the one that all of the others branch from?" I asked and the display zoomed in on the node. "Dark Star Alloy. Ooh so close. What the hell is a dark star?"

"A dark star or also called a black sun is a star comprised of dark energy instead of compressed hydrogen and helium atoms." She began. "When a black sun reaches the end of its life a Dark Nova occurs, and the stellar remnant is like a neutron star. Dark Star Alloy is made from a Dark Nova remnant."

"Holy fucking shit! How close am I?" I asked and growled in frustration. "I need two levels of engineering and three in technomancy or twenty in each. Maybe saving the Shi'Ar home world will get me enough. No use delaying any longer... I am talking to myself again."

"It is okay boss. I won't tell anyone." Surfer giggled. "Here's your quests."

'Missing Shi'Ar Home World.' And right next to it... 'Darksaber Reborn!'

Hells yes! I activated one and the other was also started. I guess they are both in the same or similar locations. Morya chimed in on my commlink and informed me that they, meaning she and the Storm Sisters, had located the remnants of my first lightsaber. The Ghost Dancer was all gassed up and ready to leave. Susan and Jenny Storm were also ready to join me on mission. I shifted back to my normal shape before replying. I had to keep my new persona a secret for now. MJ, Angela and I shared a quick shower and boarded the cloaked ship hovering just above the roof of the Wakandan embassy. As I slipped on my gloves, I remembered the odd expression on Steph's face when she handled them. I checked my inventory to make sure they were the same item and they were. They hadn't been switched out or tampered with.

"Hey Ghost, you okay?" Susan asked as I settled into the copilot's seat.

"No. Maybe once we get to our destination I'll be focused." I said my enthusiasm wavering for the first time since I began playing the game. What the hell was haunting me?

"Darksaber." Morya whispered and I smiled.

"You are right. It is about damn time I got my shit back!" I growled channeling my uneasiness into my hunger to retrieve my property. "What could make an entire planet disappear though," I wondered out loud. The twins and Morya looked guilty as hell. "What?"

"We are the reason the Shi'Ar came to Earth." Susan laughed.

"Yeah, we popped out of the Negative Zone right by an area of space patrolled by a Shi'Ar cruiser." Jenny added.

"We might have been visible on scanners for a few scant seconds," Morya continued. "Fine, we were definitely detectable. They followed us to Midgard."

"I might have guessed that. But uh, what does that have to do with the disappearance of an entire planet?" I asked and they stared at the deck plate silently. "Well?"

"It has to do with Reed." Susan fumbled with her words and emotions. "After the divorce was finalized, I went through his files on the Negative Zone. I wanted to surprise you with your Darksaber or at least the crystals from it. We all did. Among Reed's files was a potential real space access to the Zone. We found it and used it to successfully enter. When we came out, we learned the true nature of the access point." Susan paused as she tried to figure out how to explain it. "The entrance is a fixed point in space/time. It doesn't move while the universe moves around it."

"Oh shit! It is like a landmine waiting for something to run into it." I exclaimed as I imagined the Shi'Ar home world slamming into it. "An entire planet though."

"It is a space/time anomaly," Morya declared. "I am sure all sorts of matter and energy pour into the Zone. If a star passes close but not within the range of the portal. It might draw in streamers of coronal energy that strike anything on the other side of that opening. There is no guarantee that the location of the portal is fixed on the other side. It might be. Who knows?"

"I guess we are going to find out." I said as we switched to the FTL drive. "How long until we get there?"

"Since Midgard has been moving away from the anomaly it will take us three days to reach it," Morya said trying to hide her smile. "Oh, whatever shall we do to pass the time?"

"Is this when we engage in unbridled sex?" Angela of Asgard asked.

"Where did you find her?" Susan asked as she stripped out of her uniform.

"I am Angela of Asgard," the tall buxom redhead declared as she shed her armor. "Who is first?"

With that kind of challenge, we all piled on.

Seventy-one hours later. Damn the ship stank of sex, sweat, and pussy. There is nothing like a little unbridled fucking to get rid of the blues. I stood beneath the shower as Surfer tapped into the emergency air scrubbers, recently installed by Susan and Jennifer for just this sort of emergency and flushed the worst of the funk into interstellar space. I laughed when I thought of some sick fuck at Numenor might use that as an origin story for some cock hungry super villain that would one day terrorize the cosmos when it encountered the Power Cosmic. Who knew those guys were off the wall at the best of times, god love them?

"We are nearly there," Surfer purred in my ear. "Shall I wake the others?"

"Can you wake them?" I asked. "That last one was pretty damn epic."

"Braggart!" Angela growled as she staggered into the shower.

"Says the woman that can't walk straight." I chuckled as she grabbed me by the chin and kissed me.

"I admit defeat," she whispered.

'Trophy earned: Ass-guardian defeated! Three naughty outfits for Angela unlocked.'

The Ghost Dancer dropped out of FTL and I stared out from the cockpit. I was thinking of renaming the captain's bedroom that, the Cock Pit. I plopped down into the copilot's chair and gasped in surprise. What the holy hell was that?

"By Odin's Eyepatch, it is a Ka'Tack Class Heavy Cruiser!" Angela swore.

"It looks like it is made of glass and steel," MJ stated as the others rushed forward.

"She's right," Susan said. "That is a Shi'Ar battle cruiser. It is guarding the entrance to the anomaly."

"You think they want their planet back?" I asked as I welcomed suggestions. "Morya?"

"We can slip by them easily. The problem is that when we enter the anomaly, we will be vulnerable. They might have enough time to blast the living hell out of us before we finish transitioning from real space to the Negative Zone."

"A distraction, that is what we need." I thought out loud. "Is there anything else on this ship that can cloak itself?"

"The life pods each have a cloak," Morya informed us. "Oh, I see. We launch a life pod, set it to decloak and when they fire, we enter the zone."

"Anyone got a better plan?" I asked and saw Angela make a face. "One that doesn't involve attacking the big battlecruiser head on."

"No," She pouted.

"Let's get dressed, program the pod, and get ready to slip on by them." I said.

Twenty minutes later we had a light meal in us, dressed for combat, and a life pod ready to allow us to sneak on by. We were getting ready to launch the pod when our sensors alerted us to a ship coming out of FTL. The Skrull warship looked armed to the teeth. While the big boys were talking, we'd set our plan into motion. We reprogrammed the pod to decloak right between the two ships. That would keep both busy.

"Shi'Ar ship, this is the Sword of Astur. You were warned about remaining in this region of space." The Skrull captain transmitted on all channels. "You are about to drift into sovereign space of the Skrull Empire. Leave at once."

"We are merely guarding the time/space portal that swallowed up our home world. Please allow our diplomats more time to come to an agreement. Don't let a mission of peace throw us into war." The Shi'Ar captain replied as we nudged towards the gate's entrance.

"Launch the damn pod." I ordered.

"If you do that, you might trigger a war." MJ declared and she was right of course. I wasn't a hero but damn it all I sure as hell wasn't a warmonger either.

"Fuck it all. Fine!" I cursed as Morya strapped into the pilot's chair. "Everyone buckle up, this is going to be interesting. Morya, can you put us in front of the anomaly? Can we just sort of drift into the zone?"

"It would be risky, but it might appear as a natural occurrence. If we are wrong, we won't survive the first volley." She warned.

"Do it before I change my mind," I growled. "What is that look for?" I asked Angela.

"Nothing," Angela grinned.

The Ghost Dancer carefully slid into the path of the portal and we waited. We used as little power as we could. The six of us stared out as the two warships maintained their positions and with little warning, we slipped back into that god-awful dimension, the Negative Zone. We powered up the engines and scanned for the Shi'Ar home world. We needn't have bothered. It was nearby and surrounded by what appeared to be an enemy armada.

"What the fuck?" I cursed as we kept well clear of everyone and everything. "Somebody give me an analysis of what we are looking at, please."

"The planet is indeed the home world of the Shi'Ar. Sensors indicate a dense minefield surrounding the planet. The mines are giving off the same energy signature as the Shi'Ar warship we encountered earlier. Just outside the range of the minefield are a twenty-two orbital weapons platforms of unknown configuration. The ships behind those platforms belong to the same military faction." Surfer informed us as we sat slack jawed and hopelessly outnumbered by two different parties.

"Great! Just fucking great!" I cursed. "Where the fuck is my shit?"

"Isolating debris," Morya said as her fingers danced over the ships controls. "Wait... what? Aw shit! They built a weapons platform on it."

"Why is it so damn small?" I asked. "That is the Rakata temple right."

"Yes. When it self-destructed, it imploded reducing its mass from twelve miles on a side to a mere one-half mile. The stone has been converted to super dense material. It should have completely compressed into a micro black hole before collapsing. Something halted the process."

"My lightsaber is in there somewhere?" I asked and Morya nodded.

"We got a clear signal from it. The alloy you used for its casing was drawn into the implosion and altered. It is giving off a weird energy signature." Susan added with a glint in her eye. "I know that look."

"I want my shit back." I declared. "How big is that gun emplacement? How many soldiers guarding it?"

"I can't be sure without doing an active scan." Morya informed us. "I would guess at least fifty."

"Anything else I should know?" I asked as Jenny piped in.

"I tried flying into the interior. The local gravity was more than I could safely withstand." She shared. "It took everything I had to crawl out away from the center where the energy signature for the crystal was located."

"I'll go." Angela offered. "I am quite sturdy."

"You are telling me," Jenny giggled.

"Okay. Angela and I will sneak in and get whatever are left of my Darksaber. After that we'll peek at the gun emplacement." I said and she agreed. "Best case, we disable it or program it to attack the enemy's flagship. Worst case, we cut and run. We can't take on an entire armada."

I settled on my Vibranium Predator armor and the dark elf dagger. Angela placed her sword on her hip and wore her ribbon armor. We slipped unseen out of the ship and I cloaked us in a sphere of invisibility. My agitation grew and I remembered why I hated this place so much. We reached the far side of the temple remnant and I checked the quest markers to see what I had to accomplish to complete it. If I could recover the Darksaber I would finish the first portion of the quest. To complete it I needed to reforge the Darksaber and make it fully functional. Then I looked at the Shi'Ar quest and I read down the list of what I needed to accomplish.

'Steal Blastaar's Prized staff. Find the Eye of the Tamer. Get Sharra's Sickle. Save the planet!' Bonus: Sleep with a member of the Shi'Ar royal family.

I didn't commit to anything. I wanted to get my namesake back. Anything beyond that was a bonus. I reached out and touched the ghostfire crystal and it was tantalizingly close. I let it pull me towards the new entrance into what was left of the temple.

"There Ghost," Angela whispered. "I can see the opening. It is small."

I opened my eyes and she was already on her hands and knees and entering the gap. I clenched my teeth when I spied her ass aimed skyward. Her armor shifted and I got a clear view of her bare ass.

"Thank my goddesses!" I intoned with great reverence.

"I think I am stuck; my hips are a bit..." Angela hissed.

"Curvaceous. The word you are looking for is... oh dear goddess what a sight!"

"Help you fiend or I will smite you!" She growled. "Hey! That's my... ass... oof! I am through." I turned to mist and slipped through the opening with ease. "I should punish you."

"Later, we have a task to complete. Maybe later I'll let you tie me up and show me how fierce you can be." I fired back and she smiled. "I thought so. Come on."

Each step was a little harder than the one before it. I imagined we were walking towards the core of a neutron star. We were both grunting but it wasn't for anything fun. The stones had been crushed by its own weight and I wondered how the narrow tunnel had survived. Was it part of the reason why the darksaber had endured? I was shaking and pushing myself to go on. Just turning my head to check on Angela was torment.

"You okay?" I asked and I could see her muscles flexing and straining to move forward.

"I can do it!" She growled through clenched teeth.

"I know you can." I said as I reached out and touched her. She cursed when I teleported her to guard the entrance.

I shifted to smoke form and if I had a mouth, I would have let out a gasp of relief. Even then I was forced to drift across the bottom of the tunnel. The grip of gravity only got worse. I was wise to have teleported Angela away. My gaseous state began to change, and I wasn't doing it. I was being forced into a liquid state by the ever-growing force of gravity. I had never assumed a watery form before. I slithered down the tunnel. The force being applied to me didn't relent. Oh no, it only got worse, much worse. As I slithered forward, I began to heat up. I was glowing faintly at first. If I thought the emotional effects of the zone were bad this made that feel like a walk in the park.

'Damn!' I cursed as chunks of crystal began to form inside of me.

The pressure being exerted on me grew with each meter I moved towards the center of the temple. I reached a white-hot crystal state and imagined this must be what a piece of carbon feels like as it becomes a diamond. With an extreme effort I was able to shift into a perfect sphere. I rolled down the tunnel. I wondered again how the hell this passage survived the implosion.

I was nearing the center when my state changed from crystalline to a liquid metal. The last change was so subtle and profound I nearly missed it. My sizzling mass had been converted into a metallic plasma that hovered just above the surface of the tunnel floor. I was surrounded by a powerful magnetic field like that of a mag lift train. I slid forward by sheer will alone but even that wasn't going to be enough. I had reached that point. I could no longer move. I was mere yards from my goal, and I was paralyzed.

"NO!" I screamed in my thoughts within sight of the stone pillar holding the remnants of my darksaber. "Fuck you gravity! There has to be a way." Somehow my treasure was captured inside a sphere of antigravity. My weapon tumbled weightless within my line of sight. If I tried using telekinesis to pull it to me the moment it left the bubble it would be crushed. "Think man... think!"

I even tried teleporting, but some unseen barrier kept me from doing so. What the hell kept the chamber from collapsing under all that gravity? I strained and willed my miniscule form forward an inch at a time. Each time it drained my stamina meter completely. I waited as it slowly recharged under the brutal conditions. I was able to do it three more times before I reached the absolute limit of willpower and blazing desire. As I waited for my stamina bar to recharge, I stared in disbelief at what I saw.

"Holy shit!" I cursed while I examined the immediate area.

One minute later.

"Ghost? What is it Ghost?" Susan sent through the commlink.

"I've reached the edge of the inner chamber. I know how it survived and you won't believe it." I said not believing it myself.

One minute later.

"The extreme gravity is creating a time lag." Morya explained. "Describe it to us Master." She begged.

"The room is perfectly round. Around the outer walls are six of the dark elf power suits. I am guessing that when the implosion occurred their force fields kicked in automatically. Their fields overlapped creating a flawless bubble. At the center of the chamber is a short stone pillar and hovering above it the Darksaber. My Darksaber!"

One minute later.

"Can you reach the weapon?" Susan asked.

"I haven't figured out how to get passed the barrier without disrupting it." I admitted. "I can't teleport beyond it." I growled so damn frustrated. "Oh Istus... how the hell do I get across this distance?"

One minute later.

"Istus? Who is Istus?" MJ asked.

"Goddess of Time and Space," I said. "Oh my god! I am so stupid! Hold on! I've never done this before."

I pushed out all the distractions. It felt like it took forever. I no longer felt the crush of the tremendous pressure upon me. I floated in that mental state that freed me to try and fold time/space. I imagined I lay on a piece of paper that covered the ground between me and the pillar. It included the pillar so that when things folded, I would be right next to it.

"Fold! Damn you!" I screamed. The air warbled but nothing more. "I am trying too hard. Relax and try a different attack." I stated as I forced myself to calm down.

I imagined I was holding a blank piece of paper. I drew a circle that represented the pillar and a snake like figure to be me. I brought the two together and then pinched the paper and formed the fold. I ran my fingers along it creating the crease. I reached out and touched the Darksaber and added it to my inventory.

'Trophy earned: Fold, spindle, and mutilate!'

Ding!

Objective concluded. Darksaber retrieved.